June042015

“According to local media, the mayor of Jerusalem came down to the streets to calm the protesters. However, one protester responded by affirming the racist nature of the Israeli police. ‘I don't want a hug. Look at me as you would look at a white person. I don't need a hugs. That is a patronizing attitude that says that I'm incapable, so let's give him a hug,’ Haaretz quoted the protester as saying.

Other demonstrators made references to the current turmoil in the U.S. city of Baltimore, where people have been protesting police violence against black men across the country.

‘Apparently the streets of Israel must burn like they do in Baltimore, in order for someone to finally wake up. The apartheid regime is back, this time in 21st-century Israel,’ Gadi Yevarkan, head of the Campaign for Equality for Ethiopian Jews, told the Israel-based news outlet Ynet.”

“Ethiopian-Israelis number about 120,000 of Israel's 8 million population. They began immigrating to Israel in the 1970s after chief rabbis determined that they had biblical roots.

The protests took place in front of the police headquarters located near the residence of the Israeli prime minister. The police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse the protesters and protect the prime minister’s residence.

This is not the first time the Ethiopian community received ill-treatment from the Israeli police. Last year a 22-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli died during protests after receiving a serious injury when the police used tear gas against him. His family found him handcuffed and unconscious while in police custody. He died shortly after in a hospital.”

“The protest surged through the streets of Tel Aviv, with demonstrators carrying placards with messages such as, ‘We demand full equal rights.’

‘In Europe they kill Jews because they're Jews, here they kill Jews for being Black,’ another placard read, according to Al Jazeera.

Police threatened to forcibly disperse the rally, after it blocked a main highway, according to the Times of Israel. There are unconfirmed reports of at least two protesters being arrested.

UPDATE: Police have deployed tear gas against protesters, in an effort to force them from the streets. There are reports at least one police vehicle has been overturned.

The demonstration was the second major rally since footage emerged earlier in the week of two police officers beating an Israeli Ethiopian soldier. The footage sparked a wave of outrage, with critics accusing police of widespread discrimination against Ethiopians. On social media, the protests have been likened to the rallies in Baltimore, U.S.

Over 120,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel. Human rights groups have long claimed Ethiopians face discrimination from across Israeli society. When thousands of Ethiopian Israelis protested Thursday night in Jerusalem, they were met with tear gas, prompting clashes that left at least 10 people injured. ”

“‘Protesters in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv revealed an open and bloody wound in the heart of Israeli society. This is a wound of a community sounding the alarm at what they feel is discrimination, racism and disregard of their needs. We must take a good hard look at this wound,’ explained Rivlin.

The president's admission was made during a meeting with Israel's ultra-orthodox community. Rivlin added they had made a mistake by marginalizing Ethiopian descent citizens.

Last Thursday, the Ethiopian Israeli community staged protests after videos emerged on social media portraying two police officers violently attacking an Israeli soldier of Ethiopian descent.

The soldier in the video, Demas Fekadeh, received an award from former President Shimon Peres in recognition of his distinguished military service, and the Ramon Award for excellence and leadership in his high school studies.

Also on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, met with Fekadeh and confirmed him the policeman who beat him has now been fired.

May172015

1. Getting fired because we don’t fit into white cultural norms.

Rhonda Lee, an African American meteorologist who worked at a Louisiana TV station wore her hair in a natural hairstyle one viewer found offensive. “The black lady that does the news is a very nice lady. The only thing is she needs to wear a wig or grow some more hair. I’m not sure if she is a cancer patient. But still it’s not something myself that I think looks good on TV,” the viewer wrote on the station’s Facebook page.

2. Encountering a police officer who may kill us.

ProPublica reports that black males stand a 21 times greater chance of being killed by cops than their white counterparts. What’s more, a 2005 study reveals that police officers are more likely to shoot an unarmed black person than an armed white suspect.Madame Noire created a list of at least 10 armed white men who aggressively brandished weapons or even shot at police yet were taken into custody alive. Black women aren’t treated any better, as this list by Gawker demonstrates.

3. Not being able to get a job.

The black unemployment rate has been twice the rate of unemployment for whites, basically forever. According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2013, the unemployment rate for black Americans has been about double that of whites since 1954.

4. Our daughters being expelled from school because of “zero tolerance policies.”

According to a 2015 report titled “Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected,” that analyzed Department of Education data from the New York City and Boston school districts, 12 percent of black girls were subjected to exclusionary suspensions compared to just 2 percent of white girls. In New York City, during the 2011-2012 school year, 90 percent of all girls subject to expulsion were black. No white girls were suspended that year.

5. We are much more likely to be harassed by police than by white residents in NYC.

Though the NYPD has legally put an end to its racist stop-and-frisk policy, the department’s “Broken Windows” policy is in full effect. What the policy does is arrest people for smoking small amounts of pot, peeing on the streets, riding a bike on a sidewalk, selling cigarettes on the corner and other minor offenses. Between 2001 and 2013, roughly 81 percent of the summonses issued have been to African Americans and Latinos, according to the New York Daily News.

6. Being bullied at work.

Fifty-four percent of African Americans claim to be victims of workplace bullying compared to 44 percent of white respondents,according to the 2014 Workplace Bullying Survey. A recent example of workplace bullying comes from Portland, Oregon, where two current and two former black employees of Daimler Trucks North America are suing the company for $9.4 million. Joseph Hall, 64, says half a dozen white employees threatened him with violence, wrote graffiti showing “hangman’s nooses” at his job, and placed chicken bones in his black co-worker’s locker. There’s much more ugly racism alleged in the case, if you have the stomach to read it.

7. Being pulled over by the police.

Black drivers are 31 percent more likely to be pulled over than white drivers, according to the Washington Post. We fear this pretty much every time we enter our vehicles. Sure, we sometimes violate traffic traffic laws. But we get stopped even when we don’t.

8. Being accused of shoplifting when we’re shopping.

Shopping while black can be pretty stressful. Just this week, a black NYPD officer filed a lawsuit alleging that employees at PC Richards & Son store, in Lawrence, N.J., harassed him for “shopping while black.” Sammari Malcolm, 40, of Brooklyn, says employees accused him of using a stolen credit card when he purchased $4,150.23 worth of electronics, even after showing his ID. Malcolm also claims store employees frisked him and detained him for two hours. He is seeking $5.75 million in damages. Sound familiar?

9. Getting sick and not having access to health care.

While African Americans have gained better access to healthcare since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, black people have less access to medical care than whites in core measures, according to data from the Agency for Healthcare and Research Quality. When we do gain access to care, it’s far worse than whites in 40 percent of core measures.

10. Having white people say we’re exaggerating these issues.

This isn’t so much a fear as a chronic and sometimes debilitating annoyance. It seems that no matter how much we can statistically demonstrate that racism is pervasive and damages us on many levels, there are white people who fight us tooth and nail with arguments that life is not as challenging for us as we say it is.

May162015

“Miyamoto says she entered the competition after a mixed race friend committed suicide because of the teasing she received. So the backlash she’s received is nothing new and will fuel her fight to end racial prejudice.

‘I was prepared for the criticism. I’d be lying to say it didn’t hurt at all. I’m Japanese — I stand up and bow when I answer the phone. But that criticism did give me extra motivation,’ she told AFP in an interview.

‘I didn’t feel any added pressure because the reason I took part in the pageant was my friend’s death. My goal was to raise awareness of racial discrimination,’ added Miyamoto, who was bullied as a schoolgirl growing up in the port town of Sasebo, near Nagasaki.

‘Now I have a great platform to deliver that message as the first Black Miss Universe Japan. It’s always hard to be the first, so in that respect what Naomi Campbell did was really amazing.’

‘I used to get bullied as a kid but I’ve got mentally stronger, to protect myself,’ said the model.

‘When I was small I stood out and always felt I had to fit in with everyone. I’d try not to bring attention to myself, but now I say what I feel. I do things my own way.’

‘I want to start a revolution,’ Miyamoto added with a laugh. ‘I can’t change things overnight but in 100-200 years there will be very few pure Japanese left, so we have to start changing the way we think.’”

May152015

“Early Jewish settlers perceived Palestine as a ‘virgin territory,’ essentially asking to be ‘fertilized’ by a more racially pristine entity. The desire of Jewish settlers to possess Palestinian territory led them to imbue it with feminine characteristics. The land was either depicted as ‘the lover to be conquered and fertilized’ or ‘the mother giving birth to a new “masculine” people’. Jewish settlers constituted the ‘masculine’ group, using sexual violence to reassert white supremacist norms of patriarchy. The metaphoric representation of a nation as a woman and the female reproducer of an ‘abject people’ justified political control over Palestinian territory by framing it within the familiar rhetoric of masculine dominance over the female body and female sexuality. The invasion into national territory is equivalent to the invasion into women’s bodies.”

“The days to come hold bad and good news. The bad news is that Israel, with the current make-up, is likely to inflect more damage than before on the palestinian side. The good news is, though, a right wing government, such as the one in place currently, really reveals the real face, intentions & actions of Israel. Things will be seen as they really are. Had it been for a ‘left’ wing government, which would be led by Hertzog from the Zionist Camp coalition, intentions and actions would not seem so obvious. The difference between a ‘left’ wing government and a right wing one in the context of Israel only lies in the means used. The goals, however, remain the same. And the factual record carries enough evidence.” — momo33me

“Netanyahu's lineup is dominated by right-wing and religious parties and commands a slender majority of 61 of the parliament's 120 seats, leaving it vulnerable should a disgruntled MP turn on the premier.

On the eve of the March 17 election, Netanyahu triggered a diplomatic backlash by promising there would be no Palestinian state on his watch.

Although he has since sought to backtrack, reviving the peace process is unlikely to be a priority for his new cabinet, which features several ministers bent on expanding settlement construction on land the Palestinians want for a future state.

Netanyahu's 61 majority seats are largely right wing, some of whom faced allegations of refusing a future Palestinian state and racist politics after they acquired their Knesset seats.

May032015

May022015

Israeli logic - Palestinians who hate Israeli Jews for being Israeli Jews are anti-Semitic terrorists or their supporters. Israeli Jews who hate Palestinian people just for being Palestinians are logical.

April282015

April042015

Displaced from their homes in the mid- to late-1940s, Israel was quick to characterize Palestinians as infiltrators. It is a very cold word, and wherever it is used, know that it serves not only a political objective but a racist ideal as well.

The term in its most derogatory form originated almost simultaneously with the establishment of the state of Israel. ...